Denver Nuggets Hold Off Los Angeles Lakers in Close 120-113 Finish to Notch 39th Win of the Season

Jacob Perrine
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) controls the ball as Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes (11) guards in the first quarter.

In a game that had plenty of Western Conference playoff seeding implications, the Denver Nuggets were able to fend off the Los Angeles Lakers’ second-half comeback to prevent falling further down the current playoff standings.

Nikola Jokic Continues Triple-Double Ways in Win for Denver

While Russell Westbrook holds the title of “Mr. Triple-Double” in the NBA at the moment, Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic is edging ever closer to taking that mantle with his latest performance. The three-time MVP finished with 28 points, 12 rebounds, and 13 assists in the win for the Nuggets. This latest triple-double marked Jokic’s 23rd of the season, a remarkable feat given he missed a month of action this season due to a left knee injury.

While Jokic was stuffing the stat sheet per usual, his All-Star teammate, Jamal Murray, was giving the Lakers’ defense all kinds of trouble throughout the game. Murray would knock down 5 threes as he finished with 28 points and 7 assists in the win. The Nuggets All-Star duo served as the backbone of Denver’s offense, as both players accounted for over half of the team’s offensive production tonight.

The Nuggets’ entire offense was on fire from every part of the floor in the win, as they shot over 52% from the floor and 45% from three in the win. The only chink in the Nuggets’ armor on the offensive side of the ball was their carelessness when it came to ball security. Denver would commit 18 turnovers against the Lakers, with Jokic committing 9 of them, an ugly stat that almost prevented the Nuggets from pulling out the win.

Lakers Offense Plays Well Despite the Loss

Although the last few weeks have been challenging for the Lakers on offense, the purple and gold had an overall solid outing on that end of the floor in the loss. Unfortunately, it seems the Lakers are also incapable of capping off any comebacks late in the game, as their 15-point second-half comeback fell short in another bad loss against a playoff-caliber team. Los Angeles would be playing from behind from the jump, as they never held a lead throughout the entire game.

The Lakers were again led on offense by franchise superstar, Luka Doncic, who was one of the main reasons that the Nuggets were unable to run away with the game. Doncic would finish with 27 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, and would add in 4 steals in a solid two-way showing in the loss. This 27-point performance by Doncic would mark his 8th-straight game scoring over 20 points, a strong stretch of scoring consistency from the league’s leading scorer this season.

The Lakers would get solid offensive contributions from a variety of players, with over 5 players scoring in double digits in the game. The Los Angeles bench was also the most critical factor in the Lakers’ late comeback attempt, as both Jaxson Hayes and Rui Hachimura led the way off the bench. Hayes would score 19 points, while Hachimura would drop 16 points to help give ample scoring support in the loss.

LeBron James Makes NBA History Again

If there’s a notoriously unbreakable NBA record, you can guarantee LeBron James will find a way to crack it, and he once again rewrote the NBA history books tonight, as he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the top spot in career field goals made. James entered the game needing only three field goals for the record and would break it on a fadeaway jump shot with 11.8 seconds left in the first quarter. James would finish the game with 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 8 assists in the loss.

Nuggets Stay Ahead of Lakers in Playoff Standings with Win

Coming into the game, the Lakers were firmly on the heels of the Nuggets for the 5th-place position in the West, as they sat just a half-game back for that spot. Following this loss, the Lakers will have to wait a bit longer to move up and will have to fend off the Phoenix Suns for their current position, as Los Angeles holds a razor-thin two-game lead over Phoenix at the moment.

Meanwhile, for the Nuggets, they can breathe a sigh of relief since they now have a bit of cushion as they head into a tough upcoming schedule. The Nuggets will face off against six-straight current playoff teams over the next week, with both the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs being involved in that mix. If the Nuggets can come out of the gauntlet with a few wins, their chances of attaining a top 4 seed in the West will be very much alive.